British Industrial History

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Julian Horn Tolme

From Graces Guide

MR. JULIAN HORN TOLME was the youngest son of the late
Mr. Charles Davod Tolme, merchant, for many years Her Britannic
Majesty’s Consul at Havana, in Cuba, in which city Mr. Tolme was
born, on the 28th of January, 1836, and where he received the
rudiments of his education.

On his father’s return to England,
about the year 1851, he was entered as a student at King’s College,
London, where he took a distinguished position, especially in geology and mineralogy.

After attending the Civil Engineering
classes of the College, he was, in 1855, articled for five years to
Messrs. Locke and Errington. It was chiefly under Mr. Errington,
at that time Engineer-in-Chief to the London and South Western
Railway Company, that Mr. Tolme was employed. He was
deputed to superintend various important works then in course of
construction, being successively placed in charge of the Salisbury
station, and works in connection therewith; the Barnes and
Kew curves; and the branch to Kingston. He also assisted to
prepare Parliamentary plans for the Company, as well as for the
London and North Western Railway Company in Yorkshire and in Derbyshire.

Upon the death of Mr. Errington in 1862, following that of Mr.
Locke in 1860, Mr. Tolme and Mr. W. R. Galbraith, M. Inst. C.E.,
who had been two of the principal Assistant Engineers of the late
firm, and the former of whom had been appointed by Mr. Errington
as one of his executors, entered into partnership for the
purpose of continuing the practice.

That partnership expired by efflux of time in 1869, after which Mr. Galbraith
and Mr. Tolme, though continuing to occupy the same offices,
conducted separately the various works entrusted to them.

Amongst many minor works, Mr. Tolme acted as Engineer to
the following: the Thames Valley railway, the Alton Alresford
and Winchester (now known as the Mid Rants) railway, the
Garstang and Knot End railway, the completion of the Shrewsbury
and North Wales railway (commenced under Mr. Ashdown),
the Newport Pagnell Railway, the Harborne railway, the Wigtonshire
railway, the bridge carrying the new road over the river
Thames at Wandsworth, the Gellivara railway and canals in
Sweden, and the completion of the Tunisian railways.

In conjunction with Mr. A. S. Hamand, M. Inst. C.E., he acted as
Engineer for the Birmingham District tramways, the Halesowen
railway, and the Whitby, Redcar, and Middlesboro’ Union railway;
whilst with Mr. F. S. Gilbert he was associated in the construction
of the extension to Hammersmith of the Metropolitan District
railway. He was also consulting Engineer to the Yarmouth and
North Norfolk Railway Company ; consulting Engineer from 1866
to 1870 to the London Financial Association; and one of the last
works with which he was connected was a railway from Brighton
over the Downs to the Devil’s Dyke.

He was much interested in the volunteer movement, and at
its beginning took a leading part in the formation of the 3rd
Middlesex Artillery, which was originally composed, in great
measure, of men in the service of the London and South Western
Company. Shortly before his death, after fifteen years’ service, he
retired from the Reserve Forces with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

The immediate cause of his death was acute rheumatism, from
which he had suffered for a month previously. He died in the
forty-third year of his age, at his residence, Lindfield, Sussex, on
the 25th of December, 1878, and was buried in the family vault
at Highgate Cemetery, London. A man of extensive knowledge
and experience, great amiability and social powers, and with a
singularly winning manner, accompanied by a handsome presence,
Mr. Tolme. was known to a large circle of friends and acquaintance,
who will deplore his early loss.

Mr. Tolme was elected an Associate of the Institution on the
7th of May, 1861, and was transferred to the class of Member on
thell3th of March, 1866.

JULIAN HORN TOLME was the youngest son of the late Charles David Tolme, merchant and for many years Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at Havana in Cuba. There Mr. Tolme was born on the 23rd January 1836, and received his early education.

His father having returned to England about 1851, he completed his education at Ring's College School; and in 1855 entered the office of Messrs. Locke and Errington, with whom he served a pupilage of five years.

At the expiration of his pupilage lie was retained as an assistant to the firm, who had in hand some of the most important works both at home and abroad.

In 1862, both partners in the firm having died, Mr. Tolme took up the business in partnership with Mr. Galbraith, one of the principal assistants of the late firm, who was appointed chief engineer to the London and South Western Railway. The two carried on the practice of civil engineering together until this expiration of the partnership in 1869, after which they continued in the same offices, but carried on business each on his own account.